Bug: File mode specification error opening Org file without headline on first line [8.3.4 (8.3.4-39-ge0acd8-elpa @ /home/nlj/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160418/)]

Bug: File mode specification error opening Org file without headline on first line [8.3.4 (8.3.4-39-ge0acd8-elpa @ /home/nlj/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160418/)]

[N. Jackson]

For several months now I have been getting the error "File mode
specification error: (error Before first heading)" when I open some of
my Org files. [After the error message, the file opens just fine and Org
works normally.]

What distinguishes the Org files that do not suffer from this problem
from those that do is that they have a headline in the first line of
the file.

A fairly minimal recipe:

    1. $ cat > ~/temp-org-test.org
    An introduction.

    * A Headline 

      Some text.

    ** Sub-Topic 1

    ** Sub-Topic 2

    *** Additional entry
    ^D

    2. $ emacs &

    3. Visit ~/temp-org-test.org

At this point the error message "File mode specification error: (error
Before first heading)" is displayed.

Note: This test file is from
http://orgmode.org/worg/dev/org-syntax.html.

Setting debug-on-error, I get the following backtrace:

    Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "Before first heading")
      signal(error ("Before first heading"))
      error("Before first heading")
      outline-back-to-heading()
      outline-flag-subtree(t)
      hide-subtree()
      (save-excursion (goto-char (point-min)) (hide-subtree) (show-children keep-levels) (condition-case err (while (outline-get-next-sibling) (hide-subtree) (show-children keep-levels)) (error nil)))
      outline-hide-sublevels(1)
      org-overview()
      org-content()
      org-set-startup-visibility()
      org-mode()
      set-auto-mode-0(org-mode nil)
      set-auto-mode()
      normal-mode(t)
      after-find-file(nil t)
      find-file-noselect-1(#<buffer temp-org-test.org> "~/temp-org-test.org" nil nil "~/temp-org-test.org" (801256 64773))
      find-file-noselect("/home/nlj/temp-org-test.org" nil nil nil)
      find-file("/home/nlj/temp-org-test.org")

On the other hand, if I edit the test file and add a headline on the
first line of the file, for example

    * COMMENT This is dummy headline

then the error does not occur. Of course, this seems a rather ugly
work-around.


Emacs  : GNU Emacs 25.0.92.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.18.9)
 of 2016-04-18
Package: Org-mode version 8.3.4 (8.3.4-39-ge0acd8-elpa @ /home/nlj/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160418/)

current state:
==============
(setq
 org-export-backends '(ascii beamer html icalendar latex odt)
 org-tab-first-hook '(org-hide-block-toggle-maybe org-babel-hide-result-toggle-maybe
		      org-babel-header-arg-expand)
 outline-minor-mode-hook '(outshine-hook-function)
 org-speed-command-hook '(org-speed-command-default-hook org-babel-speed-command-hook)
 org-reverse-note-order t
 org-occur-hook '(org-first-headline-recenter)
 org-checkbox-hierarchical-statistics nil
 org-metaup-hook '(org-babel-load-in-session-maybe)
 org-agenda-start-on-weekday nil
 org-log-done t
 org-format-latex-options '(:foreground default :background default :scale 1.5
			    :html-foreground "Black" :html-background "Transparent"
			    :html-scale 1.0 :matchers ("begin" "$1" "$" "$$" "\\(" "\\["))
 org-confirm-shell-link-function 'yes-or-no-p
 org-finalize-agenda-hook '(nlj-agenda-to-appt)
 org-startup-folded 'content
 org-file-apps '((auto-mode . emacs) ("\\.mm\\'" . default) ("\\.x?html?\\'" . default)
		 ("\\.pdf\\'" . "evince %s"))
 org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-done t
 org-support-shift-select 'always
 org-default-notes-file "/data/org//notes.org"
 org-capture-templates '(("t" "Todo" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/organiser.org") "Todos")
			  "* TODO %?\n:LOGBOOK:\n  CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n" :prepend t
			  :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1)
			 ("e" "Event" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/organiser.org") "Events")
			  "* %?\n:LOGBOOK:\n  CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t
			  :empty-lines 1)
			 ("a" "Appointment" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/organiser.org")
			   "Appointments")
			  "* APPT %?\n:LOGBOOK:\n  CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t
			  :empty-lines 1)
			 ("l" "Log" plain (file (concat org-directory "/log.org"))
			  "* %U\n\n%?\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t
			  :clock-resume t)
			 ("n" "Note" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/notes.org") "Notes")
			  "* %^{Enter Note Title}    %^g\n   :PROPERTIES:\n   :Created:  %U\n   :END:\n\n%?\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
			 ("o" "Old-style Dated Note" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/notes.org") "Dated Notes")
			  "* %U\n%?\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t
			  :clock-resume t)
			 ("j" "Journal" entry
			  (file+datetree (concat org-directory "/journal.org"))
			  "* %U\n%?\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t
			  :clock-resume t)
			 ("w" "Work caputres")
			 ("wt" "Work – Miscellaneous Todo" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/work.org")
			   "Miscellaneous Tasks")
			  "* TODO %?\n:LOGBOOK:\n  CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n" :prepend t
			  :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
			 ("wm" "Work – Meeting Appointment" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/work.org") "Meetings")
			  "* MTNG %?\n:LOGBOOK:\n  CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t
			  :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
			 ("wn" "Work – Note" entry
			  (file+headline (concat org-directory "/work.org") "Notes")
			  "* %U\n%?\n%i\n" :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1 :clock-in t
			  :clock-resume t)
			 ("c" "Capture" plain (file (concat org-directory "/notes.org"))
			  "%U\n Context: %a\nCapture: %i\nComments: %?\n" :prepend t
			  :kill-buffer t :empty-lines 1)
			 )
 org-after-todo-state-change-hook '(org-clock-out-if-current)
 org-from-is-user-regexp "\\<REDACTED\\>"
 org-src-mode-hook '(org-src-babel-configure-edit-buffer org-src-mode-configure-edit-buffer)
 org-agenda-before-write-hook '(org-agenda-add-entry-text)
 org-babel-pre-tangle-hook '(save-buffer)
 org-mode-hook '(navi-make-org-mode-promotion-headings-list turn-on-font-lock
		 #[nil "\300\301\302\303\304$\207"
		   [org-add-hook change-major-mode-hook org-show-block-all append local] 5]
		 #[nil "\300\301\302\303\304$\207"
		   [org-add-hook change-major-mode-hook org-babel-show-result-all append
		    local]
		   5]
		 org-babel-result-hide-spec org-babel-hide-all-hashes)
 org-refile-targets '((org-agenda-files :maxlevel . 5))
 org-archive-hook '(org-attach-archive-delete-maybe)
 org-replace-disputed-keys t
 org-clock-persist t
 org-ctrl-c-ctrl-c-hook '(org-babel-hash-at-point org-babel-execute-safely-maybe)
 org-directory "/data/org/"
 org-cycle-hook '(org-cycle-hide-archived-subtrees org-cycle-hide-drawers
		  org-cycle-show-empty-lines org-optimize-window-after-visibility-change)
 org-agenda-finalize-hook '(nlj-agenda-to-appt)
 org-agenda-ndays 7
 org-catch-invisible-edits 'show
 org-deadline-warning-days 21
 org-confirm-elisp-link-function 'yes-or-no-p
 org-metadown-hook '(org-babel-pop-to-session-maybe)
 org-log-into-drawer t
 org-contacts-icon-use-gravatar nil
 org-agenda-skip-deadline-if-done t
 org-hierarchical-todo-statistics nil
 org-agenda-files '("/data/org/contacts.org" "REDACTED"
		    "/data/org//organiser.org" "/data/org//log-and-centre.org"
		    "/data/org//log.org" "/data/org//journal.org"
		    "/data/org//roles-and-goals.org" "/data/org//org-usage-notes.org")
 org-clock-out-hook '(org-clock-remove-empty-clock-drawer)
 org-archive-save-context-info '(time file category todo itags olpath ltags)
 )

Re: Bug: File mode specification error opening Org file without headline on first line [8.3.4 (8.3.4-39-ge0acd8-elpa @ /home/nlj/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160418/)]

[Kyle Meyer]

nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:

> For several months now I have been getting the error "File mode
> specification error: (error Before first heading)" when I open some of
> my Org files. [After the error message, the file opens just fine and Org
> works normally.]

I'm not able to reproduce this with your test file.  Do you see the
error if you load Org with no other packages and no configuration?
Based on your configuration dump, it seems like you're using outshine,
in which case this may have already been reported [1].  That issue seems
to be fixed in the latest version of outshine.

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/100973/focus=101007

--
Kyle

Re: Bug: File mode specification error opening Org file without headline on first line [8.3.4 (8.3.4-39-ge0acd8-elpa @ /home/nlj/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20160418/)]

[N. Jackson]

Thanks Kyle.

At 21:41 -0400 on Wednesday 2016-04-20, Kyle Meyer wrote:
>
> Based on your configuration dump, it seems like you're using outshine,

You are right. I had installed navi-mode (and its dependencies outshine
and outorg) a few months ago to try it out. I have removed them and the
problem is fixed. [FWIW, I had version 2.0 of all three files.]

Thank you, and sorry for the noise.

[I never found the time to actually try navi-mode; perhaps I'll have
some spare time in the future when I can re-install it and give it a
test drive.]

N.